Although the official and final result of the Ukrainian parliamentary elections is still expected, the balance of power in the future Verkhovna Rada is already known to Ukraine and the world. Western observers and analysts publish their views on the Ukrainian elections. Their publications often demonstrate Ukrainian problems from a rather unexpected angle. That is why “Apostrophe” collected the most important and most eloquent statements of the Western media about the results of the Ukrainian parliamentary elections.
The Guardain: "The rock star forms a coalition with the comedian who became the President"
"It was not enough to elect a comedian for the position of the President. Now in Ukraine a rock star has all chances to become kingmaker (the one who makes kings)". The Guardian's attention is focused on the intentions to start negotiations on the formation of a coalition and government with Sviatoslav Vakarchuk and his party "Voice", announced immediately after the first election results by Volodymyr Zelensky.
The leader of the band "Okean Elzy" Sviatoslav Vakarchuk, his party and political views are discussed in the media more than the absolute favorite of the election race - the party "Servant of people". Other political forces getting to Parliament, each of which will be more numerous, than the "Voice" are not even mentioned. And the fact that the "Servant of people" will have enough mandates for the monopolistic majority is also of little interest to Western observers. Such "minor" things as results on majority districts which just bring to such victorious results ZE-team or results of other parties are also uninteresting to observers. But the authors note the Ukrainian request for "new faces", which just finds its expression in the election results of "Servant of people" and "Voice".
The Telegraph: "President - ex-comedian is seeking for the coalition with a rock star"
The Telegraph evaluates Ukrainian elections almost unanimously with The Guardain. The attention of this media is also focused on the possibility of the coalition of the "Voice" and the "Servant of people": “"Voice" can become kingmaker in the most likely coalition with "Servant of people" Indeed, a popular musician is very suitable as a partner for a TV humorist." Much attention is paid by the authors of the pro-European course of Ukraine, which the main figures of the publication – the "Servant of people" and "Voice" promise to keep, as well as "populist" slogans of the favorite of the parliamentary race, such as the abolition of immunity, "new faces", and the like. And such a painful topic for our society as the pro-Russian representation in the new Ukrainian Parliament, generally remained "overboard".
The Independent: "The election result is a humiliating rejection for representatives of the old government"
The most comprehensive review of the results of the parliamentary elections in Ukraine in English-speaking media was published by The Independent. This is perhaps the only media, which even in the title drew attention to the prospect of a monopolistic majority of "Servant of people". Also, the authors of The Independent are aware of such a phenomenon of the Ukrainian electoral system as "majoritarian", and they are almost the only ones who tried to explain the Ukrainian specifics of elections in single-member districts to the Western reader. But the favorite of the previous media, Sviatoslav Vakarchuk, took in the review the place, corresponding to the results of the elections – at the end of the list of passing parties. "For representatives of the old government, the result of the elections is a humiliating rejection," the authors of The Independent noted. "The result of the national populists is also dilapidated, and the populist party of Oleh Liashko was simply demolished by Zelensky's revolution."
Bloomberg: "Zelensky's Party has saddled a wave of public anger washing away "impure officials from state institutions"”
Bloomberg interprets the election result as a clear victory of Volodymyr Zelensky, the continuation of the electoral success of his presidential race. According to the authors, "voters punished more traditional parties". Bloomberg is perhaps the only media which noted a new phenomenon in Ukrainian politics, when "money bags" and protégés of oligarchs massively lost elections in single-mandate districts to athletes, TV stars and noname-representatives of the "Servant of people". Also Bloomberg emphasizes that more than two-thirds of the votes of Ukrainians were given for political forces advocating integration with the EU and NATO.
With minor exceptions, most publications in the Western media are of informational nature. But still there are a few obvious trends. Western media, and therefore their readers and viewers, are much more interested in the fate of the "new" and "populist" forces of Volodymyr Zelensky and Sviatoslav Vakarchuk than the people who headed our country and represented it on the world stage for years and decades, and therefore, as it would seem, should be familiar and close to the West. The course for a complete renewal of power in Ukraine has become obvious for our partners and enemies a long time ago, and they are preparing to deal with new forces. On the other hand, the rhetoric of "revenge" of pro-Russian forces which is so acute and popular in our information field - is absolutely alien to the Western media, and in fact it is completely ignored. This means that our confrontation with the aggressive Imperial Russia in the eyes of the major Western media and their audience remains exclusively our problem.
